The products will be accessible on line through Ryanair's web site, www.ryanair.com, and will be operated as a joint venture with www.123.ie, a subsidiary of Richardson Insurances, one of Ireland's major online providers of insurance products.

123.ie will deal with Irish-based customers and Churchill Insurance will service customers in the UK; customers in mainland Europe will be connected to Winterthur, the parent group of Churchill. Both companies are subsidiaries of Credit Suisse.

In a statement released by Ryanair, 123.ie's chief executive Derek Richardson said: '123.ie is delighted to announce this association with Ryanair.com. Ryanair.com has been highly successful and now leads again with this new initiative whereby 123.ie. will offer its online customers further choice when buying insurance products. In providing this service for Ryanair.com customers, we are pleased to have put in place providers of the calibre of Winterthur insurance covering Europe and Churchill, one of the top online insurance providers covering the UK, guaranteeing that Ryanair.com customers will be assured of quality and value at all times.'

Michael Cawley, Commercial Director of Ryanair, added: 'We are delighted that Ryanair.com customers can now take advantage of the competitive services provided by 123.ie. We are further pleased that 123.ie have secured Churchill as the UK provider, with Winterthur, part of the Credit Suisse Group, as the European provider, ensuring a top quality range of products for our customers from leading European Insurance Providers.'